


The Kitten

by wheel_pen



Series: Agent and Doctor [20]
Category: The Bourne Legacy (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Animal Violence, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-11 00:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3308678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karl and Jeremy rescue a stray kitten from a guard dog at the Center and bring it to Rachel, hoping she can heal it. She’s not surprised which amazes her more—that the agents would think to save a kitten, or that Karl and Jeremy are working together on something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Kitten

Rachel heard a commotion beyond the doorway of the exam room and gave Jenny a quizzical look as she entered the outer office. The nurse shook her head, equally perplexed, and Rachel went through the door to the hall, the shouting increasing in volume as she rounded the corner. “Dr. Ward!” someone yelled frantically, and why was she not surprised to find that it was Jeremy, bolting down the hall towards her. It was a _little_ surprising to see him accompanied by Karl, though.

“It’s okay, it’s fine,” Rachel called to the guards who were following the agents. They were lucky they hadn’t been tranq’d yet, barreling through the halls and yelling that way.

“Medical emergency!” Jeremy shouted for good measure. “We have to see Dr. Ward!”

“Can you make it to my office?” she called down to them. Of course they were running faster than Rachel had ever seen anyone run outside of the Olympics and even with her head start she decided it was prudent to sprint back to her exam room and snap on a pair of gloves while they were still halfway down the hall.

“Jenny, hold that door open,” she instructed. “Guards stay in the outer office, I don’t need them getting in my way.” The nurse nodded quickly and moved to keep the outer office door from closing automatically.

“Dr. Ward!” Jeremy called again, as if she might have forgotten he was out there.

“Come in, come in,” she insisted and he and Karl flew through the doors, only skidding to a stop once inside the exam room. Naturally neither was out of breath.

“Guards, stay out here, please, Dr. Ward’s orders,” Jenny said in the background.

“Now what’s—oh, G-d, okay.” Jeremy had Karl by the shoulder and had been pulling him along; Karl held his hands clasped together in front of him, and they were covered in blood. “Okay, just—“

“Here, put it on the table,” Jeremy directed Karl, and the large blond man delicately deposited something on the paper cover of the exam table, a small, bloody, furry lump.

A kitten.

“Oh my G-d,” Rachel responded, not sure what else to say.

“It’s been hurt,” Karl pointed out unnecessarily.

“Can you fix it, Dr. Ward?” Jeremy asked anxiously.

This was not exactly what she’d been expecting. “Okay, well, uh, what happened to it?” she asked, gently probing the small creature. It was still breathing but not moving much, and it let out a heartbreaking meow as she touched it.

“One of the guard dogs had it,” Jeremy explained. “Karl rescued it!”

Rachel glanced over at Karl and saw that the hands he dangled carelessly at his sides had injuries of their own. “Jeremy, do a field dressing on Karl’s hands,” she ordered, as much for Karl’s sake as to get them to stop hovering over her.

“It’s okay,” Karl shrugged without concern, but Jeremy leaped to obey Rachel with disinfectant and gauze. “Can you fix the cat?”

“Oh, I don’t know, guys,” Rachel admitted reluctantly. “I can give her something to calm her down and wrap up her injuries, but she might have internal damage.”

“They can fix that with surgery,” Karl asserted.

Rachel gave the kitten a tiny bit of anesthetic that Wikipedia said was good for animals and started tending her wounds. “Well, we don’t have a veterinary surgeon on staff,” she was forced to point out.

“Let’s call one in,” Jeremy suggested eagerly, and Karl nodded in agreement.

Rachel was still floored by the fact that Jeremy and Karl were working together on something, and that that something involved rescuing a small, helpless animal. She did not want to discourage this behavior. “Jenny, send for a veterinarian,” she called into the outer office, where a couple of remaining guards were milling around boredly.

“Okay, Dr. Ward,” Jenny answered promptly, not blinking at the odd request.

“ _Try_ to get one anyway, you can use my name,” Rachel assured her, not certain this was even going to work.

She finished binding up the kitten’s injuries. It lay on the exam table, watching her silently, its breath coming in quick pants. There were acres of woods and lawn behind the Center for the agents’ outdoor training; of course the perimeter was carefully patrolled—partially by intimidating German shepherds and their handlers—but something like a stray cat could easily sneak in. Rachel didn’t want to think about what might have happened to the mother cat or other kittens.

“Jeremy, can you get me a clean towel, and a box?” Rachel said, seeing him idle again. “Something small, I think it would make the kitten feel safer.”

The agents could understand that well enough and Jeremy grabbed a nearly-empty box of cotton swabs, dumping the remaining ones out on the counter. He lined the box carefully with the towel and Rachel laid the kitten inside, folding the lid partially shut over it.

“Dr. Ward, there’s a Dr. Chesney on the books, a local vet,” Jenny reported. “He’s on his way in.”

“Okay, good.” She shouldn’t be surprised the Center had a vet on retainer, she supposed, since there were a number of animals on the grounds, like the guard dogs and some horses. “You two, can you go downstairs and escort Dr. Chesney up here right away?” she asked of the guards.

They hesitated and she gave them a pointed look. “Sure, Dr. Ward,” one conceded, and they left.

Jeremy and Karl were staring into the kitten’s box on the side table, silent and intense. “Jeremy, are you hurt?” Rachel checked, noting the blood on his hands.

“No.”

“Well, wash your hands, please.” She changed her gloves and turned to the other agent. “Okay, Karl, come on. Let me take a look at your hands.”

“They’ll heal,” he shrugged, not moving from his position at the kitten’s box.

“Karl.”

“I’ll watch the kitten,” Jeremy said, washing his hands in record time. He knelt on the floor so he could peer directly into the box, like they thought keeping it in sight was the only thing keeping it alive.

“Don’t bother it,” Rachel warned, unwrapping Karl’s hand. “It needs to rest.” She winced at the slashes and gouges she saw. “So you literally pried the kitten from the dog’s mouth,” she guessed.

“Yes.”

“You’re gonna need some shots,” Rachel decided, scribbling a note. “How’s the dog?”

“I didn’t notice,” Karl claimed. Rachel hoped they had a back-up vet as well.

She was working on Karl’s other hand when Dr. Chesney arrived. He went straight to work and Rachel set him up with access to the other medical departments, like X-ray. Fortunately, he knew his way around.

A couple hours later Rachel was sitting in a waiting area outside an operating room with Jeremy and Karl. Jeremy was anxious and squirmy, finding ways to touch Rachel like holding her hand or laying his head on her shoulder. Karl sat as still as a statue, staring straight ahead at nothing, not even itching at his bandaged hands.

“—and then we heard this noise, like a yowling, and when we looked over the guard dog had something in its mouth, something alive!” Jeremy had told this story about a dozen times now but it seemed to comfort him. “So Karl and I ran over to see what it was. I guess if it had been a squirrel or a prairie dog or a rat or a rabbit or a snake or a mole or a weasel we would’ve let him keep it, but it was a kitten! And he wouldn’t let it go so I grabbed the dog’s body and Karl grabbed his head and got the kitten out! Then we came running to find you, Dr. Ward,” he finished.

“I know, I remember that part,” Rachel indulged him, patting his hand.

“They’ll let us keep the kitten, won’t they?” Jeremy asked, as if she would know. “I’ve kept a puppy before, to learn how to take care of one—mission research—it could be very useful.”

“Well, I hope so,” Rachel replied, not wanting to get his hopes up. “Karl, what do you think? Would you like to keep the kitten?” She was a little worried about his stiff demeanor and lack of obvious anxiety; she read a lot of emotion into his faint frown, emotion that was no doubt being tamped down ruthlessly.

“Cats are okay,” Karl rumbled in response. As if he routinely attacked a German shepherd with his bare hands for things that were merely okay.

Now Jeremy was listing off accessories supposedly required to keep a cat properly; the list got longer the more he Googled on his phone, leading Rachel to predict this would be the most spoiled cat in history. She pictured Jeremy and Karl, old and retired, sharing a house somewhere and bickering in one-word sentences, with a dozen cats crawling all around them. It was sort of hilarious and disturbing at the same time, but mostly hilarious.

Dr. Chesney walked into the room. “I’m sorry,” he said. “The kitten didn’t make it.”

There was silence in the room. Jeremy drew in a quiet breath.

“Oh,” said Karl suddenly. Then he was still, his face as impassive as ever.

Rachel felt her nose start to tingle and then suddenly she was crying, tears overflowing her eyes. It wasn’t so much about the kitten as it was about Karl, trapped inside whatever impervious shell his training had designed for him, unable to express his excitement or grief. Those things weren’t necessary for his missions and would in fact just get in the way. But Rachel knew that didn’t mean he didn’t _feel_ them, somewhere inside.

“I’m sorry, Karl,” Rachel told him, and she threw her arms around him in a hug. He didn’t move, he didn’t respond, but he did wait until she stopped before he stood up.

“Thank you, Dr. Ward,” he said flatly, and Rachel cried harder as he marched out.

Then Jeremy put his arms around her and pulled her closer. He was better able to express himself than Karl, it was true, but there were still so many things locked up inside him, inside all the agents. She doubted his eyes would even be moist if she looked at him, though he’d been the one talking the most about the cat.

“There was just too much damage,” Rachel dimly heard Dr. Chesney saying. She tried to calm down and pay attention, because the man had gone to a lot of trouble to come out here on Rachel’s say-so, and she should at least thank him.

Jeremy stood. “Thank you, Dr. Chesney,” he told the vet, shaking his hand. “Can I walk you out?”

He knew the way, so Jeremy sat back down beside Rachel. “It’s okay, Dr. Ward,” he tried to tell her, putting his arm around her shoulders again. “You did a good job.”


End file.
